Hardware in Mechanical Ventilator : Mechanics of Ventilator

SERVO-s mechanical ventilator (brochure)

Cycling of the mechanical ventilator breath.

Patient-ventilator interaction is a key element in optimizing mechanical ventilation. The change from inspiration to expiration is a crucial point in the mechanically ventilated breath, and is termed "cycling." Patient-ventilator asynchrony may occur if the flow at which the ventilator cycles to exhalation does not coincide with the termination of neural inspiration. Ideally, the ventilator ter...

The mechanical ventilator: past, present, and future.

The use of ventilatory assistance can be traced back to biblical times. However, mechanical ventilators, in the form of negative-pressure ventilation, first appeared in the early 1800s. Positive-pressure devices started to become available around 1900 and today's typical intensive care unit (ICU) ventilator did not begin to be developed until the 1940s. From the original 1940s ventilators until...

Choosing a ventilator for home mechanical ventilation

A miniature mechanical ventilator for newborn mice.

Transgenic/knockout mice with pre-defined mutations have become increasingly popular in biomedical research as models of human diseases. In some instances, the resulting mutation may cause cardiorespiratory distress in the neonatal or adult animals and may necessitate resuscitation. Here we describe the design and testing of a miniature and versatile ventilator that can deliver varying ventilat...